


A Planetary Conundrum

by beccabecky



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, I Honestly Don't Know What I'm Doing But I'm Trying My Best, I know the summary looks cool but the fic's just fluff i just dont know how to write summaries, Kai Is A Giant Dork, Linh Cinder Has A Potty Mouth, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, kaider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 13:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18852178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccabecky/pseuds/beccabecky
Summary: Two parts of a whole, that's what they were. Destinies threaded together for eternity.





	A Planetary Conundrum

Kai looked at the mark that adorned his wrist. It was a circle: half a moon and half a sun.   
  
_'Oh my stars,'_ he thought _'I have a soulmate,'_  
  
He traced the black lines of the art once, then twice to make sure that what he was seeing was real.  
  
Of course, him having a soulmate mark wasn't uncommon. It was expected to have a mark representing you and your soulmate. You and your soulmate would have the same mark on the same part on your bodies.  
  
You would get it when on the day of your 16th birthday. And that was that.  
  
But Kai never remembered his parents ever showing them their soulmarks. He's sure that they did when he was young but he doesn't remember so who knows.  
  
But right now, all that mattered to him was that soulmate mark.   
  
_Knock knock_  
  
Oh, right. He's a prince. And it's his 16th birthday. He should be grateful he doesn't have a mob of people outside the place singing Happy Birthday.   
  
Not to say it isn't welcome, it's just that he'd rather enjoy his morning in silence.  
  
Prince Kaito sighed as he got up from his bed. _'Happy birthday to me,'_  
  
\------

 

Cinder finds the idea of soulmates ridiculous. I mean, a perfect person designed to be your best equal. Unless they were programmed to be so, Cinder doubts that would actually work. Especially with Earthans already being as complicated as they are.

But that doesn't stop Cinder to daydream about who her soulmate could have been. After all, maybe she does have a soulmate. She did lose a few limbs in that hover accident. Maybe her mark was supposed to be on one of those?

Cinder snorts as she pauses on her repair of a servant android's fan. _'If that's where my mark was going to be, the universe is a fucking asshole,'_ she thinks.

A message popped up in her screen

**|16th Birthday of Prince Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth.|**

Well, lucky him.

\-------

[Two Years Later]

"So, you can fix her?" Kai looked between Cinder and Nainsi rapidly. 

Cinder just gave him an unamused glare. "They don't call me the best mechanic in New Beijing for nothing, _Your Highness_ ,"

"I know, I'm just checking," The royal rubbed his arm, fiddling with the soft material of his hoodie.

Cinder chuckled a bit. Kai's cheeks flushed. "It's fine, I'll bring her to the palace once I'm done, if that's alright with you,"

"Oh, sure," He said all too quickly. Why does his face feel hot? "I better get going, thank you, I'll see you later, I guess?"

Cinder raised an eyebrow. "You do know you don't have to thank me for doing my job, Your Majesty,"

"I'm just doing what any gentleman would do, Linh-mei," Kai winked.

She rolled her eyes and escorted Kaito out of her booth. Kai made it out and looked back to her dark irises.

To any other person, her irises looked dull, dirt brown. But to Kai, those eyes held deep earth, like soil wet from a storm. He couldn't help but be drawn to them.

And Cinder did the same, staring.

When they noticed what they were doing, the two both looked down to the floor.

Cinder looked up after a few seconds and cleared her throat. "I-I better get back to work, pleased to meet you, K-Kaito," she stuttered out. She then closed the door in his face. 

The prince lingered at the door, reaching out to open it again but deciding against it.

Kai looked back to his wrist and noticed his mark began to glow a bit on the moon side. _'Huh, weird,'_ he thought as walked to his hover.

Must have been a trick of the light.

\------- 

 

Tingles and small sparks started coming out of Cinder's glove once she sat back down. She took of the item off her human hand and stared at the picture that was being drawn on her wrist.

It was a... circle. Half of it was a moon and half was a sun.

_'Shit.'_

Turns out she does have a soulmate.

And they _really_ like the moon.

\------- 

 

_'Shit, shit, shit, shit, s **HIT, SHIT SHIT-'**_ Cinder thought as she bolted down the stairs to the palace gardens.

She's fairly certain that she lost her foot and was assured of that when she lost her balance and fell to the base of the stairs. 

Cinder got up, putting her hands on her knees as a feeble attempt to even out her breathing.

The young cyborg then realized that her gloves came off. _'How the actual **fuck-** '_

"Crap." She muttered as she looked at her human hand. She forgot that she had a soulmate mark on her wrist. 

"Cinder..." She whipped her head to see a saddened Kai with her foot, an angry Levanna, and a crowd of people behind them. 

Kai's eyes narrowed as he looked to her wrist. Confusion registered on his face, then shock. He looked back to Cinder with an expression of hope and apprehension.

Before Cinder could even think about it, she felt an invisible mask covering over her face.

She felt the electricity sizzling around her, eagerly waiting for her command, almost as though it had been waiting for a moment like this.

Cinder's pupils dilated at the feeling.

This had been kept from her. This... power.

She looked excited to test out her abilities but then she looked at Kai. He looked disgusted. Frightened out of his mind. Almost as if... he was looking at...

Cinder's focus recoiled. Her head feeling numb and painful at the same time. 

Guards came from the doors and locked her up in chains.

Levanna smiled coldly. "Emperor Kaito," The queen started. "May I lock up this cyborg? After all, she did try to murder me and disrupted your coronation party,"

Kai looked at Levanna in a daze, clearly exhausted by the events of the night. "Your majesty, if I may, could I keep her in a prison here on Earth? It would be well protected and you are leaving in the next few days. Once you go, you may take Linh Cinder with you as well."

The queen glared at the floor, then sighed. "As you wish, your Imperial Majesty," Levanna then turned and left up the stairs.

The guards hauled Cinder along the grass. They made it about two steps before Kai stopped them.

"Cinder," Kai started. "Did you lie to me?"

Cinder looked as though he was crazy.

"What? No, I-" She stopped mid-way through her sentence. She sighed. "I- yes. Yes, I suppose I did,"

Kai looked at her like he wanted to scream at her or kiss her- she's probably just reflecting.

Kai nodded to the guards and walked off. 

Cinder didn't bother trying to reach out to him.

She knows he wouldn't have looked back.

\------- 

 

Kai huffed out a laugh as he paced around the mechanic's room. "This is ridiculous, Cinder."

Cinder looked to the window and then to Kai, almost contemplating the idea of jumping out into the unforgiving and cold arms of space. 

"Cinder, I have a country to run." Kai's steel voice reverberated around the room. It felt like it was scratching at her mainframe.

"What did you want me to do, _Emperor_ Kaito of the Common Wealth? Just watch you get married to that fucking tyrant? Are you out of your goddamn mind?" She bit back, anger bubbling at her throat. She sighed.

"Believe it or not, Your Highness, I kidnapped you for the good of Earth. It was not in some fit of jealousy or rage. It was to make sure that bitch of a queen doesn't get what she wants so soon."

Kai swallowed a laugh. "You're saying that as though you have a plan for this."

Cinder squares her jaw. "We do, Your Imperial Majesty."

"You do?" Kai raised an eyebrow. "You do know that the Lunars will never accept anyone but... the rightful heir..." A look of understanding passed Kai's face. 

"You... you have Princess Selene?" 

Cinder fidgeted nervously and nodded. 

Kai's eyes lit up, filled with excitement and wonder. "Where is she? May I meet her? Where'd you find her? Is she-"

"She- she's fine." Cinder's voice strained like it was too painful to even say. "In fact, she's absolutely amazing. Perfect. At least half of the people she's met have the power and will to kill her. And the **other** half expects her to lead them to victory. And everyone else just _hates_ her. It's great."

Kai rose that skeptical eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something but Cinder beat him to the chase. She looked to the floor as she said it.

"It's- um, me, Kai. I'm Princess Selene."

Kai's pupils dilated a bit.

"That's why half of our soulmate mark is a moon." He whispered in the silence.

"Our?" Cinder looked at Kai's face, expectant.

"Oh, you probably don't know." Kai cleared his throat and kneeled down. "You, Linh Cinder- Princess Selene Blackburn- whatever your name is now-" Cinder chuckled. 

"-are my soulmate,"

Cinder's breath hitched. "Why- how did you find out?"

Kai turned his head away from her, face flushing. "I, uh, saw it on your wrist during the gala."

"O-oh,"

"Now, Cinder," Kai's voice was threaded with humor. "Do you have any more secrets to tell me?"

"Hmm," Cinder thought as Kai got back up, far closer than he was before.

She cleared her throat after a few seconds. "Uh- I can't, um, cry," 

"Oh, I knew that already," 

Cinder's eyes widened. "You... knew already?"

Kai stared at the floor, ashamed. "You were an enemy of the state, I had to know more about you.."

Cinder shivered. He looked at her mainframe, her spine, her prosthetics...

She looked down, crossing her arms as though she was mad, but the way her fingers tightened on her arms made her look small. Feel small.

Kai's voice softened. "I'm sorry, Cinder. I-"

She grabbed his hands, looking him the eyes. "Kai, it's fine! I understand, as uncomfortable as it sounds, it's the past." 

Kai looked at Cinder's hands and flushed for some reason. He held them up. "But I still don't understand one thing, _Your Majesty_." He purred. The princess was fairly certain that she would be a blushing mess if she could be.

"How is your hand so high-tech? It wasn't in your file that you had a _gun hand_."

"It's part of my mysterious alias, Emperor," She said with a breathy voice. She started holding Kaito's right hand with her cyborg hand. Kai felt heat rising up to his face.

And Cinder kissed his hand, looking him in the eye like the beautiful little shit she was.

Kai was unsure who started the kiss first, but it was electrifying. Cinder slotted her mouth into his mouth and they melded together as one. Two halves of the same whole. 

They kissed until they couldn't handle the lack of air. The two heaved with breathing, exhales melding together.

Cinder's coffee brown eyes stared at him, pupils taking up 60% of her irises. _'Beautiful,'_ his brain supplied.

Kaito's face was full of fondness and affection, an expression Cinder has never seen directed at her.

"So, did I blow your mind?" Cinder asked innocently, but her eyes held a different emotion. Smugness.

Kai leaned down to kiss her again. "You already did, Cinder." He whispered as he captured her lips once more.

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea on a whim and it just wrote itself I guess


End file.
